


He's A Rebel

by Faye_Reynolds



Category: The Pacific (TV)
Genre: M/M, Paranormal!AU, Sledgefu Week 2020, demon!snafu, ghost hunter!sledge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25626175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faye_Reynolds/pseuds/Faye_Reynolds
Summary: ever since they met, gene’s noticed little things about snafu that give him pause and make him wonder about the man’s past. but he doesn’t want to lose the friendship and companion he’s gained. not to mention the fact that snafu was the only person who showed genuine interest in gene’s dream of ghost hunting. the occult had always interested him but everyone else in his life thought he was crazy for trying to pursue the goal of finding proof of the paranormal. and as they reach two years of ghost hunting, gene thinks they might be right because every time something has happened, snafu had been at the ready with a logical (mostly) explanation. then, on what’s supposed to be a normal investigation, gene finds out the paranormal is all to real and all too close by.
Relationships: Merriell "Snafu" Shelton/Eugene Sledge
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	He's A Rebel

Gene always thought there was something odd about the ease in which Snafu handled terrifying situations.

When they were stuck in a house supposedly haunted by a murderer, Snafu did nothing but laugh every time Gene jumped when he swore something tried to grab him.

When investigating an abandoned asylum with tons of recorded activity, and Gene was certain he heard someone whisper his name, Snafu just claimed it was an open window and continued walking like Gene’s heart hadn’t nearly exploded in fear.

And now, in the middle of what was a routine investigation, where a chair has clearly flown across the room after Gene asked for a sign of a presence, Snafu’s only reaction is:

“Gravity is a strange thing, Sledge.”

Gene’s on the ground staring at the broken chair, mouth open, and heart-pounding.

He looks up, and as Snafu shrugs, Gene loses it.

“What in the goddamn hell is your damage, Snafu? That chair nearly took off my damn head and I know you didn’t throw it at me! Could you cut the skeptic shit for one second and just help me figure it out?”

He knows it’s harsh, but he can’t stop freaking out long enough to care.

They’d been doing this for two years and Snafu’s calm indifference had slowly been driving him crazy, not to mention the fact that it’s the reason Gene’s slowly fallen in love with the man.

He wipes his eyes harshly and when he opens them, Snafu’s in front of him, holding onto his arms.

“It’s alright, Sledge,” Snafu states, concern evident in the way he says Gene’s name.

“No, it ain’t Snafu! Whatever is here just tried to kill me! I won’t even be right again.”

Snafu stood abruptly then and when Gene looked up, he swore Snafu’s eyes were as pitch black as the night outside.

“You’re right about one thing there, Gene,” Snafu replied with cold intensity, the cadence in his voice making is deeper, darker, and making Gene’s hair stand on end, “Whatever is here _did_ just try to kill you.”

Gene’s certain his heart will stop because there’s no way it can handle the major fluctuations it's experiencing tonight.

There’s no way Snafu just admitted to something paranormal, supernatural happening.

They’d been doing ghost hunting for long enough for Gene to be 100% certain about one thing: Snafu didn’t believe in ghosts, demons, or anything paranormal. As a die hard skeptic, Gene was always curious why Snafu had been so ready to join Gene on his mission to find proof of the paranormal. Even when they met at an occult bookstore, Gene wondered why the man had stopped to ask him what he was reading. He thought he was trying to pick Gene up, but when Snafu made no move, Gene launched into what he was looking for. Snafu had listened to him for hours, the day they met, and they’d been friends ever since. Still, despite being so close, Gene always felt like Snafu was reticent like he was hiding something. When he thought too hard about, late at night in another dingy motel room, Snafu asleep in the bed beside him, he chalked it up to his natural speculative nature and would eventually fall asleep.

Now, though…now he’s wishing he’d looked deeper.

Snafu is circling the room, feeling different spots of the wall like he’s searching for _something_.

“Snaf, what’s going on?” He wishes his voice were steadier, but the fear suddenly gripping him tight won’t allow it.

“Gene, you have always been honest with me. Seems only fair I’m honest with you.”

Gene swallowed heavily, his instincts telling him to run, but his curiosity forced him to stay.

“I ain’t who you think I am.” He declared as though the statement managed to be Gene at ease in any way.

“For once in your life, Snafu, make some fucking sense. _Please_.”

He watches a fond smile form on the brunette’s lips and despite being scared shitless, Gene’s still in love with him.

“My name’s not really, Snafu.”

“No shit sherlock.” Gene snaps, he always got ornery whenever Snafu was intentionally invasive.

And Snafu, he just laughs and keeps searching the room.

He stops suddenly, crouching in the middle of the room, hand running along the floor.

Snafu looks up quickly, smile bright, but feral as he lays his hand firmly on the ground.

But Gene can’t recognize anything beyond the fathomless pools of black that encompass Snafu’s eyes.

“My real name is Seire, Eugene. I’m a demon.” Then Snafu’s hand disappears into the floor and when it reemerges and Snafu stands, he’s gripping a _creature_. Half it’s head is missing and its skeleton is covered in the thinnest, greyest skin Gene’s ever seen. He can’t breathe, can’t look away and when it snarls and reaches its razor-sharp claws towards Gene, he doesn’t even flinch.

Snafu holds it in his grip, with ease, by the throat as it tries to scream but fails.

“This looks like one of, hmmm,” Snafu turns his head to the side taken in the creature as though deep in thought, “one of Raum’s little leeches, huh?”

The creature gets one ear-piercing shriek out before Snafu tightens his grip again.

“Guess the rumors about him trying to move up were true. Thought he’d have enough gall to face me himself.”

The creature tries to speak and Snafu lightens his grip just enough for it to speak.

“Not you.”

Gene both hears it and doesn’t hear it, like a whisper passing by him.

Snafu’s eyes shift from Gene and back to the creature in sudden understanding.

They weren’t after Snafu, they were after Gene.

“Little pet. _Weakness_.”

Snafu’s face turned serious, severe and he tightened his grip again and Gene watched as the man he loved held demon spawn in his grip like it was nothing. He’d never been more attracted to Snafu since they met.

“You’re wrong.” Snafu replies, a torrent of barely controlled anger held in tense shoulders.

He pulled the spawn closer to him, watching as the creature snarled and tried to escape Snafu’s grip.

He looks to Gene with a soft smile then looks back at the creature.

“ _Love_ is _strength_.”

Gene’s heart skips a beat and Snafu must be able to hear it because he laughs like he always did where Gene was concerned.

“I have a message for Raum when you get back down there.”

Gene hears another whisper that sounded have of a snake’s hiss and a surprised “What?”

Then the creature bursts into flame and without a sound, it’s gone, and Gene is left alone with Snafu. His best friend. The one he loves. A demon.

For the first time in his life, he’s the one in doubt, the one questioning what’s real or not, what he saw with what he knows.

He doesn’t know why, but the first thing he needs an answer to is…

“So, you love me?” He asks, still trying not to lose his mind.

He hears another laugh, this one breathy as though the _demon_ was nervous.

“You find out I’m a demon, Prince of Hell, as a matter of fact, and your first question is whether or not I love you?”

Gene presses if only ease his mind of this one thing.

“You didn’t answer the question.”

Snafu sighs and its wistful nature makes Gene look up and stare.

“Hard not to, Gene. All my time in existence and I’ve never wanted something as much as I want you.”

Snafu replies gently, like someone who’s seen too much but is still in wonder with the world.

He sits down on the splintered, dusty floor in front of Gene who was still attached to the corner he was in.

Gene takes a deep, shaky breath, shocked more at his acceptance and handling of the last half hour than over the fact that the man he loved for two years loves him back _and_ at the fact that the man who loves him isn’t entirely a man, but a demon.

Still.

“A lot of things about you make a lot of sense now.”

“Like what?” Snafu asks, voice lilting at the end in genuine curiosity.

Gene smiles at that.

“Your indifference to all of this,” Gene gestures around the abandoned house, “the way you talk sometimes like you’re adopting speech from another time, your overt politeness.”

“That’s just a southern thing, Sledge, not an immortal thing.”

Despite his better judgment, Gene laughs as he grabs Snafu’s hand surprise to find it can be just as gentle as it is deadly. The heat of the touch warms Gene from head to toe.

“I don’t know if I like your _real_ name so much, though.” He states with a grimace ad smiles when Snafu rolls his eyes.

“Neither did I, at least not up here. Snafu was the first nickname anyone ever called me up here and it just stuck.”

Gene links their fingers, mind racing and following eight thoughts at once, the greatest of these being –

“Hell of a nickname.”

Gene’s eyes widened when he realizes what he said, but Snafu just looks at him with intense adoration and fondness.

It's easy then, to shut off his brain, and follow his heart.

He crawls the little space between them on his hand and knees, then watches as Snafu just waits for Gene to commit. It heady and the way Gene’s heart is racing is making him dizzy with lust and power. He lifts Snafu’s chin an inch higher and locks their lips together harshly. It’s an aggressive and powerful first kiss with biting teeth and hot breaths, and Gene feels like not even the fires of hell could be so hot.

He breaks apart with a gasp, reality crashing in at the worst time, but not keeping from holding a breathless Snafu close.

“Are there gonna be more of those things?” He asks, breathless himself, but demanding.

Snafu looks ashamed for the first time in all the time Gene’s known him.

“Yes, and it's my fault, Gene. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t stay away from you and you wouldn’t leave no matter how hard I tried to get you to because I couldn’t.”

It all clicks and Gene pushes Snafu so hard he falls back onto the floor.

“You asshole! All the _hauntings_? That was you?!”

Snafu looks guilty but still satisfied, and how Gene never saw the bit of the devil in Snafu, hell never know. Love truly must be blind.

“Tricks of the family trade,” Snafu shrugs, humble and shy. Gene has to take a moment to let that sink in. A demon, shy, and humble at their supernatural abilities.

“But yeah, it was me Gene and you’re so damn persistent and brave that you just kept coming back for more. You’re a reckless idiot and I fell in love with that.”

Gene laughs despite himself, disbelieving but full of so much happiness, lust, and lingering fear, that he could hardly believe this was his life.

“Guess I’m gonna have to add exorcist to my resume.”

Snafu stares for a long moment before bursting into laughter. Gene joins him after a moment and he’s never felt lighter.

Despite it all, the love that Gene feels for Snafu is sacred.

And while Snafu may have more oddities than most, his love for Gene is the most natural thing in the world.

They would make it work, make it last, even if it meant going through hell itself.


End file.
